Biography

Dr. Spitzer is Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also Walter Bauer Firm Chief in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Spitzer received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Bucknell University and his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and his Hematology-Oncology fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. His primary academic interests include the development of novel strategies for performing stem cell transplants across HLA barriers and for the induction of specific tolerance for organ transplantation.

Research & Publications

My research interests have focused on the development of non-myeloablative preparative therapy for HLA-matched and mismatched donor transplantation for hematologic malignancy. With this approach, mixed chimerism has been reliably achieved and durable remissions have been demonstrated in patients with chemorefractory malignancy. For the first time, using this technique, sustained mixed lineage lymphohematopoietic chimerism has been induced following HLA haploidentical transplantation, and the results of this experience have been published in multiple journals, including Lancet and Transplantation. In addition, I am working closely with the solid organ transplant program in the development of mixed chimerism transplant strategies for the induction of donor specific allotolerance. From this collaboration, the first successful HLA matched donor bone marrow and kidney transplants for end stage renal disease due to multiple myeloma have been performed. Donor specific tolerance following combined bone marrow and kidney transplantation for renal failure in which there is no underlying malignancy has also been achieved with this strategy. The results of this experience, in which sustained specific tolerance was achieved in 4 of 5 patients, were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

News & Events

MGHers elevate clinical care in Bangladesh: Bimalangshu Ranjan Dey, MD, of the MGH Cancer Center, begins where his story began – his birthplace of Bangladesh. Dey left the country when he was 18, but he always believed that one day he would return to use his skills and passion to improve the health and well-being of the people of Bangladesh.

Eight years ago, Jennifer Searl used a handicapped permit to get around campus at the University of New Hampshire. Last October, Searl, 26, ran a half-marathon and felt so good afterward she immediately signed up for another. In between these two extremes lies not only a journey of a thousand steps, but one taken along a path Searl herself blazed - with help from the Massachusetts General Hospital Transplant Center.